After receiving the Engineering Inspiration Award this April at the NYC Regionals, the Steel Hawks, the THHS robotics team, qualified for the FIRST World Championships. Earlier this month, 51 members traveled to Houston, Texas and competed.
“Our expectations were to try our best within our division and get selected for playoffs. Although we didn’t make it to playoffs, we still played our best and it was a good way to end the season,” Steel Hawks President Kelly Vu said.
Reflecting on the season and the team qualifying for the World Championship, Head Coach and Chemistry teacher Joel Heitman said, “We’re a humanities school [and] we do extremely well with our sciences. [So] to have a competitive robotics team that consistently can get to the next level of robotics, that’s a really big deal, and that’s a proud thing for a whole school community.”
Win or lose, students who participated in the trip said that it was a memorable experience.
The FIRST Robotics Championship is divided into 8 divisions consisting of 75 teams separated into their own pit areas. In each qualification round, there were 6 teams in red and blue alliances playing against each other to earn ranking points.
Before heading off to championships, Mr. Heitman said that the team had a “very small window for practicing modifications” between the final regular competition and the Championship, since the robot has to be shipped to Houston. However, he said “they did their best” to refine any details on their robot.
In addition to modifying the robot before the competition, team members also work on updating their crucial binders of information, which are used when team members are interviewed by pit judges. “These binders entail information about our team and some of the initiatives that we have, and information like our team history, as well as more specific information like the number of students that we reach and help through our initiatives.” Vice President Vidhi Patel said. “At Worlds, you want the best of the best.”
Head of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) Vaibhvi Patel said that these binders are “really pivotal [since that’s] what helped us win [the] Engineering Inspiration in our last regional.”
Furthermore, to ensure new members of the team had enough practice leading to the championship, they were given tasks to test their skills while guided by veterans.
“To ensure new team members get the practice they need, we [incorporated] them into the building process. We challenge the skill of rookies and give them tasks, so they can learn and develop,” said sophomore Logan Dookhram.
Besides preparing for the competition and executing the plan, the event helps bring the team closer together. “I would say the highlight of competition was eating dinner with the team every night and bonding with one another,” Kelly said.
Additional Reporting by Adora Uddin
